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NILES -- Months have passed since data centers dominated city conversations, but one official hopes to get an update before their next scheduled meeting.
As Wednesday's meeting wrapped up, Councilman Aaron Johnstone, D-2nd Ward, suggested calling a meeting prior to their regular meeting to discuss the city's moratorium on data centers and things related to them.
City officials approved placing a 180-day moratorium on the granting or issuing of new permits for data centers and on the receipt and processing of their applications within corporate limits in May, then declared an emergency.
The moratorium came after an April 15 pre-meeting presentation in which city officials heard from Paul Hanson, a senior project manager at Bitdeer, a Singapore-based technology company focused on cryptocurrency and AI cloud infrastructure.
The property where Bitdeer aims to build a facility is at 1047 Belmont Ave., which was purchased in May 2025.
The meeting that followed featured 90 minutes of public comments, as many took to the podium to speak against the potential data center.
"Since we had the zoning meeting, we were unable to do both; we weren't really sure it was going to run," said Johnstone, who was referring to the hearing to discuss changes to one of the city's districts.
Johnstone said he would like council members to consider coming at 5 p.m. Oct. 21, an hour before their next regular meeting, to discuss extending the moratorium and hear an update on its status.